Fake diamond manufacturing during WW2 - can't find anything

[daqq]

Hi guys,

Many years ago I read somewhere something like this:

During WW2, some German con artists managed to convince the government (or a branch thereof) that they could manufacture synthetic diamonds. The government funded them, they milked it hard, occasionally providing 'samples' from the process machine using sleight of hand. Eventually some awkward questions were asked. The con artists claimed that the diamond manufacture is just a side effect of some even greater advancement. And before more awkward questions could be asked, they disappeared with a fair amount of resources.

This is the rough outline of the story, but I can't for the life of me find anything on the Internet or anywhere else. Does anyone have any leads, know anything? I'm sure I've read it, but the original text could be BS of course.

Thanks,

David

[I wanted a rude username]

If you find something, please let us know. Sounds like one hell of a story.

Reminds me of the 1990s "magic box" video compression scam.

[nctnico]

If you find something, please let us know. Sounds like one hell of a story.

Reminds me of the 1990s "magic box" video compression scam.

This one is far more intriguing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloot_Digital_Coding_System

[Youthe]

Diamonds are really quite an interesting item. Would you pay big amounts for something that can be made synthetically with virtually no differences?

Although I couldn't find your story on the internet to confirm, i did find this, which was really interesting to read: https://www.ehudlaniado.com/home/index.php/news/entry/the-history-of-lab-grown-diamonds

[NiHaoMike]

This one is far more intriguing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloot_Digital_Coding_System

There's an example of "encoding" 15 minutes of video into 64kB:
http://www.theproduct.de/
I remember in the early 2000s an add on for Internet Explorer that plays TV in a side window at surprisingly good quality for the time, over 56k dial up. My guess is they just used a somewhat more advanced codec than was mainstream at the time. Codecs really have changed a lot over the years.
https://goughlui.com/2021/04/23/tech-flashback-digital-video-at-1-2mbit-s-developments-in-video-compression/